Last week was a bit of a blur, but I managed to fit 43 taper kilometres in there. I will spare you the details on what those runs looked like, but I will say I'm feeling good. After 21 weeks of training, I can honestly say I AM READY for this race.
Looking back on my training journal, I am reminded of all those humid summer tempo runs, early morning long runs and high mileage weeks. I started in week 1 with a total of 35 {meh} kilometres, with my peak ending with 35 {solid} kilometres in one day. I will be repeating my go-to mantra "You. Got. This." a whole lot this week.

They say that a runner goes a bit stir-crazy during taper time. Not me. This past week I have enough going on that I was thankful that my runs were a little shorter, with a few more days off than usual. I had some family in town, including my cousins Neil and Holly. We went out for dinner and they spent the day touring around Ottawa before carrying on in their journey. I also travelled to Montreal for work. And I will admit, I’ve been wearing compression socks religiously.

I ran 16km on Saturday morning with 100m strides in the final 6km. Legs were feeling good! That afternoon we had engagement pictures taken. As someone who never really thought of getting engagement photos, I was wonderfully surprised at how the session went. For anyone in the Ottawa area, I’d highly recommend our photographer, Amanda Urbanski.

In terms of the week ahead, I am having ALL the thoughts on what I plan this race to be. I use “plan” loosely, as I will go into it with a range of goals, with the ultimate goal of finishing with a smile on my face. More to come on that later.

As I mentioned before, Hamilton is really a hometown race for me. I feel relaxed about the race. It begins on the Hamilton escarpment and takes us down to the waterfront. These are roads I know and grew up on. My parents are going to be cheering as well :)

On Friday, I will be travelling to Hamilton and staying with my parents. It really is the best when you can sleep at home before the race. To say that I'm excited for this weekend would be an understatement. I'm ready for this.